Just To Have You
by redhedqt
Summary: A Romeo & Juliet story with a Degrassi twist. Can Manny and Jimmy really be free to be, or will their parents ruin everything? RR please!
1. Introduction

Just To Have You  
  
Jimmy Brooks is tired of being alone. After Ashley dumped him, he couldn't seem to get anything right, and he and Hazel never could get it together. Jimmy is about to give up when someone new catches his eye.  
  
After her abortion and the fiasco with Craig, Manny Santos is heartbroken. Will she ever meet anyone that will really love her? That's when she finally runs into someone that maybe actually does care about her...he may even love her!  
  
Jimmy and Manny seem like the perfect couple, until their parents find out.  
  
"A respectable latina doesn't date blacks, mija." Manny's father warns. "Stay away from him."  
  
"Our family has social obligations, Jimmy. You will not be seen with low life poor kids like Manuella Santos." Jimmy's parents lecture him.  
  
Jimmy and Manny will do anything just to be with each other, including doing something incredibly stupid. Jimmy and Manny's parents will do anything to keep each other apart, even if it means destroying their children in the process. 


	2. Chapter One: Brokenhearted

Chapter One: Brokenhearted  
  
"Always brokenhearted. Life's not over. I can start again." Brandy, "Brokenhearted"  
  
Manny Santos had had a horrible day at Degrassi. Craig had dumped her once again for Ashley, and Ashley had finally taken him back. Just watching them walk happily down the hall together made Manny sick. After what they had together. After she had liked him for two years. After she had gave herself to him. After she became pregnant with his baby. He hadn't even been there for her when she had the abortion.  
  
Emma didn't support her decision, and she had alienated all her other friends a long time ago, leaving her alone. The more Manny thought about everything, the more upset she became. As the bell rang, she just stood at her locker until everyone else ran to class, then sat against the lockers in the floor and began to sob uncontrollably.  
  
* * *  
  
Jimmy Brooks was late for school again. He couldn't figure out if he slept through his alarms, or if he needed to buy a new alarm clock. Either way, he was in big trouble. He got a late pass from the office, then dashed down the hallway. Mrs. Kwan was going to kill him. As he rounded the corner, he tripped over something. Or someone, he noted, as he was sprawled out on his stomach in the middle of the floor. Pushing himself up and standing up straight, he glared at whomever had tripped him.  
  
"Watch where you're going!" he snapped, and felt immediately guilty.  
  
Manny Santos had been his apparent "attacker", and she was sobbing in the middle of the floor. Jimmy felt even worse when he saw he had kicked her in the face and blood was dripping into her hand.  
  
"Shit, Manny. I'm sorry." He said. "Please stop crying. I didn't mean to, I just wasn't watching where I was going."  
  
Manny didn't respond, she just kept crying.  
  
"Manny, please! Stop! I'm sorry!" Jimmy said again. He extended his hand. "Let's get you cleaned up."  
  
She looked up at him. "Why do you care, Jimmy? It's not like you've ever even acknowledged me before."  
  
"I feel bad about kicking you in the face, that's why." Jimmy replied. "Come on, let me help you up."  
  
Manny grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up.  
  
"Come on." He said, leading her down the hallway.  
  
"Where are we going?" Manny asked.  
  
"Bathroom, to clean up that busted lip of yours." Jimmy replied.  
  
They went into the girls' bathroom, and Jimmy looked around in wonder, seeing as how he'd never been in one before.  
  
"These are way cleaner than our bathrooms...hey! How come you guys get a couch?"  
  
Manny shrugged.  
  
"Alright, get up here." Jimmy said, patting the counter next to the sinks. The counter was almost to Manny's shoulders. She gave him a Look. Jimmy sighed, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her effortlessly onto the counter. He got a few paper towels out of the dispenser and ran them under the cold water, then began dabbing at Manny's bottom lip.  
  
"Ow!" she cried. "That stings!"  
  
"Keep it there." Jimmy replied. "It'll stop in a minute." He took another wet paper towel and began wiping the blood off of Manny's chin and neck.  
  
"Jimmy, why are you doing this for me?" Manny mumbled through the paper towel on her lip.  
  
"I told you, I feel bad about kicking you in the face and then yelling at you about it." Jimmy replied. "So how come you were crying?"  
  
Manny looked down. "It's nothing important." She said softly.  
  
"Not important? Please. You were crying like one of your parents just died." Jimmy replied, still wiping the blood off her chin. He paused. "One of your parents didn't just die, did they?"  
  
Manny gave him another Look. "Would I be at school if that were the case?"  
  
"I just woke up like twenty minutes ago, I'm still a little slow." Jimmy defended himself. "But seriously, why were you crying?"  
  
"Nothing you would understand." Manny replied.  
  
"Wouldn't have anything to do with Craig, would it?" Jimmy asked.  
  
"Like I said, you wouldn't understand."  
  
"I wouldn't understand? Manny, come on. 'Dumped' is practically my middle name." Jimmy replied.  
  
"Jimmy, I've done a lot of stupid things. Hooking up with Craig and thinking that he would actually care about me is just the tip of the iceberg." Manny replied.  
  
Jimmy had never really given much regard to Manny in the past. To him, she was just a sophomore and Little Miss Cheerleader who never had problems of her own. But for some reason, his heart went out to her. Maybe there really was a story behind Manny Santos. He pulled his notebook out of his backpack and wrote down his number.  
  
"Look, Manny, I can tell something's going on, and I have a feeling you need someone to talk to about it, so I'm gonna give you my number. If you wanna talk, call me." Jimmy said, ripping out the paper and handing it to her. She ripped it in half and took his pen and wrote something down.  
  
"Here's mine." She replied simply. "If you ever need to talk about anything. I don't really have any friends anymore, so a new one is definitely needed and welcome." She replied.  
  
Jimmy grabbed her around the waist and set her down. "The swelling should go down..." he said, touching her lip gently. "Just don't mess with it. I have to get to class, Mrs. Kwan is going to crucify me. I'll see you later, Manny." He swung his backpack out of his shoulder and marched out of the girls' bathroom.  
  
Manny looked at the piece of paper in her hands. Jimmy Brooks' phone number. That was a new development.  
  
She smiled. Maybe things weren't turning out so bad, after all. 


	3. Chapter Two: Friends

Chapter Two: Friends  
  
Jimmy was just about to go to bed when his phone rang. He reached across his bed to his bedside table and grabbed it.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Um, can I speak to Jimmy?"  
  
"This is Jimmy. Who's this?"  
  
"H-hi Jimmy. It's um...."  
  
"Manny?" Jimmy asked.  
  
"Yeah." She replied.  
  
"Hey, what's up?" Jimmy asked, settling down on his back.  
  
"Nothing really...I didn't wake you up, did I?"  
  
"Nah. I was just about to go to bed, actually."  
  
"Oh." A pause. "I guess I'll talk to you later then..."  
  
"Manny, it's fine." Jimmy interrupted. "Really."  
  
"Okay." Silence on the other end.  
  
"Did you wanna talk?" Jimmy asked.  
  
"Today has just been a very tough day for me." Manny replied.  
  
"Yeah, I noticed. Wanna tell me about it?" Jimmy asked.  
  
"I don't really know where to begin..." Manny said softly.  
  
"The beginning's a good place." Jimmy cracked.  
  
"Okay. The beginning. You know, I guess it really all started back in ninth grade, at the senior's 80's flashback dance." Manny said thoughtfully. "Emma's mom had gone out on a date with Mr. Simpson, so Emma and I decided to crash the dance. And Craig snuck us in."  
  
Jimmy listened to Manny's story intently. About the very beginning of her crush and dancing with Craig in 9th grade, to him rejecting her because she wasn't mature enough. Then to Craig cheating on Ashley with her in 10th grade, and telling her he cared about her. Finally she got to the point about Craig getting her pregnant, and being faced with the hardest decision in her life, and finally going through with the abortion, and the pain she felt when Craig rejected her yet again for Ashley.  
  
"All this time I thought he cared about me was a total lie." Manny said softly.  
  
"Wow." Was all Jimmy could say. Beneath the heavy lipgloss, sexy clothes, big hoop earrings, and horrible reputation was a living, breathing girl with feelings.  
  
"Let me guess, you think I'm a huge slut, just like everyone else." Manny replied with a bitter laugh.  
  
"No, I think you're just really misunderstood and gave your all for a guy who didn't really care in the first place." Jimmy replied.  
  
"Really?" Manny responded.  
  
"Yeah. And I can sort of identify. Not with the whole pregnancy thing, but I really, really cared about Ashley, and she just rejected me. In front of everyone."  
  
Jimmy could practically hear Manny roll her eyes on the other end of the phone. "What does everyone see in her?"  
  
"I think you mean, what DID I see in her? Looking back, I don't really know. She takes everything way too serious, holds grudges to other people, but doesn't understand why other people hold grudges. She's a hypocrite."  
  
"Yeah..." Manny agreed.  
  
Jimmy looked at the clock. 1:26. "Whoa, shit! Manny, it was great talking to you and all, but I really gotta get off the phone. If I'm late one more time my parents are gonna kill me. But I'll see you at school, okay?"  
  
"Okay. It was nice talking to you, Jimmy." Manny said.  
  
"You too. Later, Manny." Jimmy hung up.  
  
Manny laid back on her bed and sighed. Finally. Someone understood what she was going through.  
  
~*The Next Day*~  
  
Craig, Jimmy, and Spinner were all hanging out by their lockers, waiting for Paige and Ashley to get out of class, when Manny walked over to them.  
  
"Hi." She said.  
  
"Look, Manny, I told you to leave me alone." Craig said.  
  
She gave him a Look, similar to the Look one would give a bug...the one that seemed to say, "You are insignificant, and I really don't care about you."  
  
"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Jimmy." She responded.  
  
"Uh, Manny, Jimmy doesn't talk to sluts." Spinner spoke up.  
  
"Spinner shut up!" Jimmy said, shoving him into the locker.  
  
"Sorry, geez. What's gotten into you today?"  
  
"Not important." Jimmy responded. "Did you wanna talk to me, Manny."  
  
"I just wanted to thank you for what you said to me last night." She replied, eyeing Craig. "It meant a lot, because most people have a tendency to only think about themselves and treat me like shit." Craig rolled his eyes and turned back to Spinner.  
  
"You're welcome Manny, and you're right about that, because some people are assholes." Jimmy said, noticing Craig giving him a surprised look. He turned back to Manny. "Tell you what. Why don't you meet me in the quad at lunch, and we'll talk some more."  
  
Manny smiled, and nodded. "Okay. See you then. Bye."  
  
"Later." Jimmy said, giving her the famous Jimmy Brooks smile. She smiled and walked away.  
  
"Jimmy, what was that about?" Craig asked. "Why'd you diss me like that?"  
  
"After I found out what you did to that girl last night, you deserve to be dissed." Jimmy responded.  
  
"Jimmy, are you sure you want to hang out with Manny Santos? She kind of gets around."  
  
"One person hardly qualifies as getting around, Spin. I gotta get to class." Jimmy slammed his locker door shut and headed down the hallway to class.  
  
Craig gave Spinner an incredulous look. "Please don't tell me he's getting involved with Santos the Slut."  
  
"I believe he is." Spinner replied. "It has been awhile since he had a date, so maybe he's just playing her."  
  
"Man I hope so...and either way, he's just nailing my leftovers." Craig replied. 


End file.
